Predestination Paradox
by DiamondStar40
Summary: As a 9-year-old Skylar Shepard sits on Arcturus Station waiting for her dad to get out of a classified meeting. her boredom soon fades when she notices a group of bullies picking on a kid with a fiery disposition despite his silver crutches...


**Predestination Paradox**

Skylar Shepard huffed a breath of air upward, blowing her bangs out of her eyes as she slumped her shoulders. She was beginning to regret begging Papa to bring her ashore. There wasn't all that much for a 9-year-old to do on a military installation, especially when kids weren't allowed in certain areas. Her father had told her to stay put while he did some work in one of those places she couldn't go into. The place wasn't even decently lit, nor did it have anything to look at save for the large window in front of her that offered a great view of the ships coming in and out of port. She could see their cruiser, the SSV _Houston_, docked some ways off, looking small in comparison to the frigates that floated closer to the viewport. Some of them had names she couldn't pronounce, like SSV _Iwo Jima_ and SSV _Guadalcanal_; others were easier, like SSV _Midway_. Daddy had told her that frigates were named for great historical battles, but she couldn't seem to figure out what a name like "Midway" had to do with battles. Perhaps she would have to read about it back on the ship. She liked reading; sometimes all she had to keep her company while Mama and Papa were on duty were the characters in her books.

A book sounded like a great idea right now, but she'd been so excited to go ashore she hadn't thought about the possibility that Arcturus Station would be this _boring…_

"Hey, quit it!" Skylar heard an annoyed voice squawk from somewhere to her left. The observation lounge she was in had several view ports, and there were pillars that separated the spaces. She stood up from the couch she had been sitting in and leaned forward, trying to determine the source. Next to the far left view port, she saw a group of kids huddled together, shoulders shaking and cackling with laughter. They looked to be about her age, if not a year older. The 9-year-old swallowed a lump out of her throat, for she knew that sound: she'd heard it several times herself when other kids would call her a bookworm or poke fun at her less-than-slender physique.

Cautiously, she approached the group to see what they could possibly be laughing about. She stood behind the adjacent pillar and peered out to the side. The kids were huddled around a small boy, whose body was sitting facing the viewport, but he was facing the kids that stood between him and where Skylar stood hidden.

He was glaring at them indignantly. The biggest kid in the group shook his head and laughed, "You don't stand a chance flying anything like that. You're just a cripple!"

"Better than being an idiot! You have to actually have brains to fly." The little boy fired back. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at the other kids, eyes narrowed underneath the bill of his black baseball cap. Skylar had to admire his fighting spirit. She usually just shrugged bullies off; Papa had always told her to be the bigger person and never get into a fight because they weren't worth it. That didn't mean that she hadn't ever thought of slugging a bully in the face whenever it happened, though.

The bigger kid was obviously insulted by the boy's remark, and moved closer in an attempt to be more intimidating. The change in perspective allowed Skylar to see that there were a set of silver crutches leaning against the chair the boy sat in. When she looked back at the boy, she saw that the bully had grabbed onto his shirt. "You think you're a tough guy, punk?"

Skylar knew that this boy stood no chance against the burly kid that had him by the collar, disability or not. Though she was terrified of speaking up, she didn't want him to get hurt. More timidly than she would have liked, she stepped out from behind the pillar and attempted to reproduce Papa's strong, confident voice…the one that he used on the bridge. "Stop it, right now! Leave him alone!"

Suddenly, all eyes were on her. She swallowed hard, hoping that the fear in her eyes wasn't apparent.

"Oh, and what are you going to do to stop us?" The larger kid snickered and turned around to face her.

Her mind was racing, she had to think of something…_anything_. "I-I'll…I'll…"

It was no use, the leader of the bullies closed the distance between them. "You'll what?" The other three kids laughed. Skylar thought she would die of embarrassment.

But she'd had enough. Between the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the heat on her cheeks, something deep inside her snapped. She made a fist with her right hand and pulled it back as far as she could before unleashing her fury on the bully's chubby face.

"AAAHHH!" He cried out and held his left eye socket. Pulling his hand away, Skylar could see it was already starting to swell. "My eye! She hit my eye!" The other kids stood stock-still and looked at her in astonishment. They all began mumbling and shoved their hands in their pockets, wandering slowly away. "Did you see what she did?" He screamed as they walked away, shaking their heads as if they didn't want to be involved in any way, shape, or form.

Despite her own shock at the display of force she had shown, Skylar maintained an unrelenting glare at the sobbing, pitiful person that stood before her. He couldn't even seem to form an intelligible word through the sniffles as he walked off after his friends, still holding his eye as if it might fall out of the socket.

After taking a few deep breaths and shaking out her right hand, she turned to look at the boy with the crutches. His green eyes were as big around as data disks.

"Uh, are you okay?" The boy grabbed his crutches and hobbled over to her, the look of astonishment still covering his face.

"Um, I think so," She said nervously, still examining her knuckles. "His face was really…bony."

The boy nodded, but didn't say anything. It looked like he didn't actually know what to say. Finally, he said, "No one has ever done that before." Skylar gave him an inquisitive look, and he shrugged, "Helped me, I mean."

Skylar smiled weakly. She knew an admission of gratitude when she saw one. "You're welcome."

He scratched at his head over his cap, ruffling the brown hair underneath. They stood in silence for a little bit. Suddenly, he stretched out a hand towards her, "My name's Jeff."

"Nice to meet you, Jeff." Skylar said, taking his hand and shaking it. His grip was stronger than she expected.

"Skylar!" She heard her father call her name from across the way. Turning her head, she saw him waving at her, "It's time to go, sweetheart!"

The boy's eyes bugged out again, "You're dad's in the military? That's so cool!"

"Yeah," she shrugged, "he's a captain, I think."

"Wow," the boy looked star-struck. "I'm gonna be in the military too, you know." He said excitedly, "I'm gonna be the best starship pilot there is!"

Skylar smiled. His determination was commendable, but she wondered if he could ever actually achieve that dream. She figured he could always try…Papa said that if you tried hard enough, you could do anything.

"Skylar!" Her father called again.

"Coming!" She said over her shoulder. Turning back to face Jeff, she said, "I've gotta go."

The boy shrugged and said, "Bye."

"Bye," she said before turning and running towards her father, calling out over her shoulder, "I hope you get to fly ships!" She didn't see it, but boy was smiling from ear to ear.

"You make a new friend, nugget?" Her father smiled down at her before taking her hand.

"Yeah," she said, "His name is Jeff. There were a bunch of mean kids making fun of him because he uses crutches."

"Well, that's not very nice of them. Did you tell them off?"

"Yeah I did," she said, but didn't tell him about punching the one kid in the face. She knew he'd be disappointed she resulted to physical violence, so she kept it to herself.

"I'm sure he was grateful," Captain Sven Shepard said as they approached _Houston'_s main airlock.

"Yeah," Skylar nodded. Suddenly, she realized that she'd forgotten to tell Jeff her name and felt bad about it.

"I'm proud of you, munchkin." Her father swept her up in his arms and set her on his shoulders, causing her to squeal with delight. "Geez! You're getting so heavy!" He walked into the airlock's decon chamber wither her on his shoulders. She had to duck so that the scanner didn't hit her as it passed over her head.

"_Logged,_" the ship's computer droned as the airlock opened, "_The commanding officer is aboard. XO Keeler stands relieved._"

As Skylar ducked again to avoid the top edge of the hatch as her father stepped into the CIC, she wondered what great adventures awaited her on her bookshelf. Maybe then she'd forget about her throbbing knuckles.


End file.
